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What are the rules on reserving a campsite with a chair?
OK here's one from this weekend, up near Christmas Meadows in the Uintas; We plot out a spot on Google Maps that would hold 5 camp trailers and families, and we pull in on Thursday afternoon. You can't see this spot from the road, you've got to drive slowly down a road, maybe a couple hundred yards, around a little hill, so it was nice and secluded, hidden from the road and any people passing by.
Well, my brother is the first into the spot, and once he gets down into the site, there's an old tent with a big tear in the rain fly, and a camp chair staked down so the wind wouldn't blow it away. Looking at it, trying to figure out how long it had been there with multiple bird droppings, we figured it had been there for a while.
What to do in this situation?
First of all, if the chair were up by the entrance to this spot, and not down the hill and around the corner, that may have kept us driving past to look for another spot. So let's agree this was a poor tactic up front. Then, what if it truly was abandoned, does nobody ever come to visit the site until the local ranger comes and removes the tent and chair?
I doubt there are official rules, but if so, what are they? Is there a time limit? We had already paid for the multi day pass, at the ranger service station a mile up the road, so we figured we were paid and proper.
So anyways, what happened was, my brother folded it all up and put it off to the side, up closer to the entrance to the site. We anticipated that maybe somebody might come looking for it, but who knows really, it was in poor shape. Well, we got there on Thursday, and who comes rolling up at 10:30 pm Saturday night? (2 full days later after we've been there) The owner of this tent. It was just him and a woman, in a Ford truck with a shell and their own tent. Just those 2, trying to reserve this large spot, for who knows how long. He drives into the spot among our 5 trailers and trucks. It sounded like English wasn't his first language, so it was a bit hard to understand him.
My brother in law was talking to him, and I kind of wish I had the chance to talk before he pulled out of there, but he tried to say the tent was here on Friday. But, we arrived on Thursday, so the whole thing sounded sketchy like he had been saving the spot for a lot longer than a couple of days.
I told my brother the next time we pull into a prime spot and somebody staked their chair down, we should fold it up nicely and place it by the entrance of the camp so they can come pick it up, then they don't even have to bother us asking where it is.
Luckily for the couple, we all vacated the spot the next morning, 12 hours later. He saw us all pulling out down the road at our original planned time, so he was free to come in and grab his spot. Unfortunately for other neighboring campers, they saw the tent and decided not to take the spot, which ended up very well for us.
So, has anybody else removed a tent or chair from a spot? Or do you have a story about saving a spot for yourselves, and it gets taken? What are the rules? How long should we expect the spot to stay vacant?
For reference, the red square is where the tent was, after we made our way down this road.
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What are the rules on reserving a campsite with a chair?
This also reminded me of “reserving spots” at parades!
So the Kaysville July4th parade draws out a huge crowd. It’s long, lots of candy, and a giant water-fight at the end.
And the night before people will bring strings and ropes and couple of lawn chairs to mark the 4 corners of their parade location for their family. Sometimes people reserve what feels like 100 yards worth!
So being the hell-raiser that I am, some years in the morning when my girlfriend and I or family is looking for a spot and if people aren’t physically in those spots...I have no problem whatsoever touching their equipment and moving it 50 feet out of the way and taking their spot.
Sometimes they show up later and asking everyone if they have seen their chairs to which we say it may be over there??? “But good luck - it’s considered abandoned property when you aren’t there!”
Lol - one family was extremely upset and the whole community around us said defending us “it’s silly to think you can reserve a spot on public land. You weren’t here and so they took your spot.” He was so mad that he took a picture of everyone lol.
So yup, if you aren’t there in your “spot” on public property, then too bad, it’s being moved. Not destroyed mind you, just moved. There’s a big difference there.
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